An extension of Sports Business News, the largest online sports business news service -- featuring the comments and insights of SBN Publisher Howard Bloom

Sunday, February 03, 2013

Safety and the National Football League – now is the time

There
are more than 4,000 retired National Football League players and their
family members grouped together in what is the biggest lawsuit the NFL
and the sports industry has ever faced. The NFL will offer
oral arguments April 9 to Eastern District of Pennsylvania, U.S.
District Judge Anita B. Brody hoping to have the lawsuit dismissed.
While the legal games relating to the lawsuit are only beginning, player
safety was very much on the minds of NFL leaders during Super Bowl
week.
In what was a surprising announcement the National Football League
Players Association announced they were going to offer $100 million to
fund a study designed to diagnose, treat and prevent injuries in active
and retired players.

The study, conducted at Harvard University, will take 10 years. Dr.
Lee Nadler, dean for clinical and translational research at Harvard
Medical School, spoke this week about the intention of the research.

“We don’t want to lessen the sport,” Nadler said. “We don’t want to
make the sport not exciting anymore. But there are ways of making sure
that the players’ health is well attended to. I think that’s our
objective.

“There are millions of young people who play football here in the United
States,” Nadler said. “There are lots of other people who play contact
sports — hockey, girls’ soccer, etc. — that are equally dangerous in
many ways, and what we learn will also help them.”

The NFLPA putting $100 million of their money
into a concussion and safety study sends a loud, clear and concise
message to the Lords of the Pigskins, NFL owners – NFL players are very
concerned about health and wellness issues on the football field.

“First and foremost, having Sideline Concussion Experts at every
game. I am aware that the league recently made an announcement at their
press conference. I wasn't there. But I've heard that they have
relented in at least some respect with our request to have Sideline
Concussion Experts. We have not seen the proposal. But we asked for
Sideline Concussion Experts, because this year you reported on a number
of high‑profile instances where players were apparently concussed or at
least had suffered a sub-concussive hit, and we know beyond a shadow of a
doubt that the sideline concussion protocol that we all agreed to was
not given to those players.” NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith
offered.

“If we are in a world today in 2012 where we can see 8, 10, 12
players who have suffered a concussive event on the sideline, and we
know that the sideline concussion protocol takes at least 7 minutes to
give, if we then see that player put back in the game 45 seconds later,
we'd know that the sideline doctors have failed to employ the very
protocol that we agreed to use.

“So our solution for that is that we'd have a sideline concussion
expert that was not paid by either team. That that person would have
one job
of making sure that that sideline concussion protocol is in order, and
if that person made a determination that that player should not go back
in, that player's not going back in. “ Smith said

It’s clear there is a trust issue between NFL players and those
responsible when it comes to safety on the football field. Players want
independent doctors not those employed by NFL teams determining when or
if once a player is injured during a game the player should return to
that game.

“On the health side, we will update our injury protocols and add
neurosurgeons to our game day medical resources. We are going to
implement expanded physicals at the end of each season. Three days to
review players from a physical, mental and life-skills standpoint, so
that we can support them in a more comprehensive fashion. We want to
pioneer new approaches to player health and safety that emphasize
prevention as well as treatment. This will include our commitment to
supporting our retired players. Those are some of the priorities. From
the quality of our game, to growing fan interest and engagement, to our
commitment to evolve and innovate, we have many reasons to be optimistic
about the future. I could not be more optimistic or ready to go.” NFL
commissioner Roger Goodell offered Friday during his annual state of the
league.

The issue of trust or a lack thereof between NFL players and team
doctors, more than 78% of current NFL players do not trust NFL team
doctors.

“Last week, we met for four hours with union officials. Several
players were there. Several owners were there. They did raise the issue
of making sure we have proper medical attention, but they didn’t raise
those statistics. That was news to me as of yesterday. I’m disappointed,
because I think we have tremendous medical care for our players. These
are not just team doctors. These doctors are affiliated with the best
medical institutions in the world – the Cleveland Clinic, Stanford,
Hospital for Special Surgery. The medical care that is provided to our
players is extraordinary. Now, we will always seek to improve it. We
will always seek to figure out how we can do things better, provide
better medical care, but I think it’s extraordinary. And as I talk to
players – including one yesterday – they feel the same way, but we’ll
have to address that and we’ll have to figure out what we can do to try
to improve it. One of those I also mentioned in the opening. We’ll add a
neurosurgeon on the field that can be there for consultation, that can
be there for another set of eyes on the field, and to support the
doctors in making the best possible decisions on the field, and off the
field. And I believe our doctors do that.” Goodell offered.

The NFLPA has suggested in no uncertain terms the San Diego Chargers
team doctor David Chao, needs to go, and much sooner rather than later.

“In San Diego there is a team doctor named Dr.Chao who is currently
the San Diego team doctor. Who has been found libel for medical
malpractice twice. Twice. The same doctor was the subject of a DEA
investigation. He's still the San Diego Chargers team doctor.

“Now, I'm not a doctor. I don't even play one on TV. But it seems
to me that the players in the National Football League deserve to have a
doctor that's not been fined for medical malpractice, and that's what
we're asking for.” NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said.

"In the CBA, at the union’s request, we entered an agreement that is
called Article 50. Article 50 states that if there is an issue with any
medical decision, or the medical professionals of the club, there can be
a solution by engaging with independent doctors, I believe three
neutral doctors, including an NFL attorney, and they will review the
matter. As I understand it, that is exactly what is going on in San
Diego. We’ll allow the process to unfold. I’m confident our doctors make
the best possible decisions for the players, and we’re going to stand
behind that. We’ll engage in the process and let it unfold.” Goodell
countered.

One doesn’t have to read between the lines to understand what Goodell
and Smith are saying. The NFLPA have found their “poster boy” in Chao
and the NFL wants to let the process the two sides agreed to in the CBA
determine Chao’s fate.

The NFL is in the second year of a ten-year CBA. Throughout his state
of the union address DeMaurice Smith was attacking the NFL and Roger
Goodell. Roger Goodell touched on his disappointment regarding the NFLPA
and the CBA, suggested the agreed process was important to adhere too.
Two years into a ten year CBA, the fun and games off the field have
only begun.

About Me

The evolution of Howard Bloom’s career took a dramatic change in the spring of 1997, when Howard began publishing SportsBusinessNews.com. In its fifteen years, SBN has evolved into the largest and one of the most influential sports industry publications.